Four Out of 10 Workers Seeking New Employment
Opportunities

Further boosts of confidence are found in the number of
potential job seekers (55%) who are confident in their
ability to find a new position.
Workers are also not worried about losing their job.
Nearly eight out of 10 (78%) workers polled for the
Spherion Employment Report said it is unlikely their
jobs will be eliminated in the next 12 months, given the
current state of the economy and their employer.

The optimism comes despite
stagnant job growth reflected in Friday’s Department
of Labor Department report (DoL). The DoL reporteda surprisingly weak month in July when employers
added a mere 32,000 non-farm jobs to their payrolls in
addition to the DoL cutting its tally ofjob growth in May and June by a combined
61,000.
By comparison, analysts had predicting a non-farm payroll
gain of 228,000 (See
Job Market Tanks in July
).

Interestingly, given the number of workers planning
on looking for new employment in the coming year,
43%of workers believe that few jobs are available,
compared to 26% that believe more are now available and 38%
that think the job market has stayed the same.
Of those likely to look for a new job, 56% actually believe
fewer jobs are currently available. However, only 36% of
those unlikely to leave their jobs believe the same.

“The July Employment Situation report from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that job creation has
slowed, even though 1.3 million jobs have been created in
2004,” said Roy Krause, Spherion president and chief
operating officer. “Our survey reveals that there is a
paradox in the American workforce. The majority of
workers surveyed have expressed strong confidence in
their personal prospects, but many still have
reservations about the availability of jobs and the
current state of our overall economy.”

Results were mixed on the strength of the
economy.
Thirty-two percent of those polled believe the economy is
getting stronger, while 30% think it is getting weaker. The
remaining 38% believe the state of the economy has stayed
the same.
Speaking about their own company, 65%
feel confident in the future of their employer, with
just 14% expressing a lack of confidence.

“Workers may have expected to see an explosion of
job creation as the economy rebounds, much like they
experienced in the mid-to-late nineties, but the labor
market has changed,” Krause said. “Employers have learned
their lessons from the economic downturn and are taking a
more strategic approach to the hiring process. They are
now looking more closely at how they source their talent
and structure their workforce, including their use of
contingent labor.”